WHEELING – West Virginians take pride in being independent-minded, but being a non-affiliated voter in the May 12 primary election won’t permit you to vote the Republican ballot this year.

Local counties, however, don’t report a groundswell of Independent voters changing party affiliation. And election officials want to remind voters they will have to bring identification with them this year.

For the first time in many years, the Republican primary is closed to voters outside the party.

The West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office breaks down what ballots a voter can vote based on their party affiliation as follows:

– Those registered as Republicans and Democrats must vote their party’s ballot.

– Members of the Mountain Party may vote their party’s ballot if one is available, or they may cast a non-partisan ballot. Those registered with the Libertarian and Constitution parties are relegated to voting a non-partisan ballot.

– Voters with no party affiliation may vote the non-partisan ballot. Otherwise, they still may request a Democrat or Mountain Party ballot (if available), as the primary election for those parties remain open.

“We just wanted to reach out to non-affiliated voters that Republicans now have a closed primary,” said Marshall County Clerk Connie Howard. “We are going to be mailing out letters to people who have no voter affiliation.”

The most recent voter registration totals in Marshall County from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office show the county as having 4,912 non-affiliated voters; 5,480 Democrats; and 8,634 Republicans.

Toni Cheiffalo, co-coordinator of elections in Marshall County, said there really hasn’t been a surge of non-affiliated voters changing their registrations, but there has been some movement.

On Monday morning, she found that 13 unaffiliated voters had changed their registration online to Republican. Later, two others came in and changed over to Democrat, according to Chieffalo.

Voters have until April 21 to make changes in their voting registration, and may do so either in-person at their respective county clerk’s office or online at the sos.wv.gov website under the “Elections” tab.

“We encourage people to vote,” Howard said. “If you do have any changes to make come in now.”

In Ohio County, there are 6,230 non-affiliated voters, along with 8,429 Democrats and 10,731 Republicans.

Erin Alletta, election coordinator for Ohio County, said she also has had a small number of non-affiliated voters changing to Republican.

“There have been a handful of people,” she said. “When they do update online, we don’t see the party (they select). As far as changing affiliation in person, there has not been a surge. But I do think people are starting to notice.”